Subject:Looking for new PC Recommendations

Posted by: riceprod

Date:1/25/2008 9:50:16 AM

Time to upgrade my PC from my 4 year old VAIO tower. This PC will be used exclusively as an audio/video workstation. My primary applications are Acid Pro 6, Vegas 4, and SoundForge 8.

Among the places I've been looking are Sweetwater and Alienware. Any input is appreciated.

Thanks!

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: RJ Fielder

Date:1/26/2008 7:41:09 AM

What kind of budget are you working with?

Intel is king of the mountain at the moment as far as processors go, so I'd go with an Intel rig. I recommend one of there Quad-core procs. The Q6600 is excellent and reasonably priced. Not sure about Vegas 4, but I know the newer versions of Vegas utilize all four cores which speeds up performance and render speed considerably (might be time to consider a Vegas upgrade as well?)

If quad-core is overkill for you then a dual-core will do fine too. I recommend going with the new 45nm Core 2 Duo E8XX series, as they run faster, cooler, and more energy efficient than their older 65nm counterparts.

As for ram, stick with a DDR2 based system as DDR3 is currently prohibitively expensive. Try to go with 2GB, as it's always better to have too much ram than not enough.

If you're looking for a workstation (and I'm assuming that's what you want, based on your usage), try to get one with an Intel chipset (P35 or X38 based). Intel chipsets lend themselves to better workstation-class stability than the gaming chipsets from nvidia (nForce), et al.

And finally, for the love of god, DO NOT GET A VISTA COMPUTER!! Vista is a resource hog of the highest order. Stick with XP Pro for the foreseeable future.

Hope that helped a little.

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:1/26/2008 8:23:10 AM

Get Quadcore - yep. Q6600 (check for G0 stepping revision if you're buying parts to assemble yourself)
Ram = DDR2 - yep. Go 800Mhz and 4gb at least if you can - it's not that expensive if you look a little. (always work your ram in pairs. so 2x2gb, or 4x2gb) (4gb is better than 2gb, especially if you start running ram hungry apps & vsti's)
P35 and X38 - both very good. (I run P35 and love it).

Vista. why not? It's not that bad - in fact I really like it. I get full ram utilisation, all my programs work, and very fast. Just check your apps for compatibility - which is why I mentioned in the other thread about possibly upgrading your software a bit. I will never revert back to XP personally.

(Sp1 for vista is due out in a few weeks and it does help also)

If you're thinking about maybe venturing 64bit sometime - Vista is the only viable solution (XP really never had the support from the drivers) I get 8GB to play with - and Acid, Vegas, SForge, CDA, DVDA, Cinescore ALL work in my Vista Os's(32 and 64)

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: riceprod

Date:1/26/2008 1:55:11 PM

Good stuff, thanks guys!

Budget-wise, I'm trying to stay under $2000, pretty sure I should be able to get something decent for that money.

Any suggestions on what I should look for with the video card, keeping in mind that for now video for me is a hobby/secondary consideration, but in the next year or so that could change.

I've got some plug-ins and VSTis that I'm pretty sure wouldn't play nice with Vista, so I'll be looking at XP for this machine.

Anyone have any manufacturers/retailers they'd recommend? My only aversion is HP/Compaq... I've gotten 2 lemons in a row from them for my office pc.

Thanks again for your help!

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: StrobeAlific

Date:1/27/2008 10:21:57 AM

I just upgraded to a Gigabyte Motherboard (can't remember the model off the top of my head) with an AMD X2 processor and 4 Gigs of DDR2 ram with heat spreaders. I also added a new NVidia Video card for around 400 bucks. A huge performance boost from my P4 3.2 system. You should be able to put a slammin' system together for under $2000.

Check out newegg.com for pricing.

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:1/27/2008 10:39:43 AM

nVidia rock. After being a long term ATI fan, I eventually switched with the 8 series of GPU. Much better quality hardware.

Depending on your time frame, ethier get something like an 8600GT (cheap and pretty sweet), or, if you have time, wait for the 9 series to appear. Then you can either choose 9 series, or get cheaper 8 series as they clear hte shelves

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: Zang

Date:1/29/2008 11:47:56 AM

Check this out from Sonica Audio Labs http://www.shop-sonica.com/default.cfm
the Elite Audio PC looks good, starting at $1,499.95

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: riceprod

Date:1/29/2008 3:55:34 PM

Funny you should mention them.... I spoke with Guy at Sonica this afternoon, very helpful. I'm heavily leaning towards them. They also come highly recommended at www.gearslutz.com .

Thanks!

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: RJ Fielder

Date:1/31/2008 12:22:33 AM

Hmm, looking over the specs of that Elite Audio PC, I'd definitely say go for it. It has practically everything you'd need and would be my choice if I were to buy a pre-built PC (I prefer to build my own though). Best of all, they install XP by default rather than forcing Vista on you.

Also, you could spring for the 4GB upgrade if you wanted. Just be aware that you wont be able to use all 4 GB in a 32-bit operating system. Here's an article that explains the 3GB barrier in reasonably understandable terms:

http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: TQ

Date:1/31/2008 5:36:11 AM

Kennymusician: I assume from your post that you have Acid Pro 6.0 running on 64-bit Vista, yes? No issues?

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: Kennymusicman

Date:1/31/2008 5:54:55 AM

Running Acid Pro 6? - No.
Running Acid Music Studio 7 - yes.

Problems with Music St. 7 - None.

Subject:RE: Looking for new PC Recommendations

Reply by: mista k

Date:2/12/2008 4:50:13 PM

I spent rite around $1700 and built my own about 2 months ago and got a seriously beast computer:


CPU INTEL|C2Q Q6600 2.40G 775 8M R 1$279.99 ( quad )
MB INTEL BOXD975XBX2KR 975X 775 1$209.99
CASE CM|RC-1000-KSN1-GP BK/SIL RT 1$189.99 ( such a sexy case too)
HD 150G|WD 10K 16M SATA WD1500ADFD 1$169.99 ( Raptor 10k )
HD 500G|SAMG 7.2K 16M SATA2 HD501LJ 2$104.99 each( 2nd & 3rd HD )
KB SAITEK|PK02 ECLIPSE II 3LIGHT R 1$39.99 ( dope keyboard )
CARD RD KOUTECH|IO-RCM620 % 1$19.99
CD-R VERBATIM|52X LS 50PK 96164 % 1$19.99 ( litescribe)
PSU OCZ|OCZ850GXSSLI RTL 1$199.99 ( 850 w power supply )
DVD BURN ASUS|DRW-2014L1T LS SATA 1$37.99
MEM 2Gx2|PAT DII800 PDC24G6400ELK R 1$132.99 ( 4gb RAM )
VGA EVGA 512-P2-N757-TR 8600GT 512M 1$149.99
total - $1,657.97
with priority processing and shipping
I got some combo discounts on some of those too up there -
and that left me with enough change to get acid 6 and still stay around $2000.
**ps** I already had a monitor - mouse - and windows xp